Chemical Love
by Loveless Romance
Summary: Sakura is part of Konoha ninja team. She gets to know Gaara, and eventually, they fall in love. The team is sent on an A rank mission, and she finds out who's behind the mission. Gaara loses contorl of himself. Sakura has to kill Gaara for her mission.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Sasuke and Sakura stood in the midst of the cliff top. Far below them they could hear the anxious thrash of the ocean waves against the shore, but in the absence of the moon's light they could see nothing. Only the blue and green emeralds of their eyes provided illumination as they begun their preparation.

If there had been a passerby, they would think they were just ordinary teenagers, on a midnight stargazing. But that was far from what their intentions were. Her pink hair long, past her shoulders, his ebony hair giving a bluish hue in the night.

"How much time do we have?'

"Approximately an hour."

"That's enough time, even if the others try to keep up." Sasuke turned his back to the cliff's end and the drop behind him. "Follow me." He threw himself off the cliff. Sakura pressed her palms together and sighed. This was Sasuke's way. He was always demanding to be the dominant leader, without even a smile.

Sakura would remember that the next time he needed help. First things first, she reminded herself. Holding back a scream for her anxiousness while she did it, Sakura too flung herself off the cliff's edge.

For one moment, as she gained the highest point in her jump, Sakura seemed to be suspended far above the ocean, almost as if gravity was considering whether to exert its weight on her or not. Still, as gravity decided not to make an exception for Haruno Sakura, and she began her descent, she had one advantage over it.

She swung on the rope wrapped tightly across her hips. She eased toward the rock of the cliff, and relaxed. Her muscles fixed in concentration as she arced down the cliff, her fingers sliding down the rope, as she'd been trained by Kakashi sensei. A light flashed at her farther down the cliff.

That was Sasuke. It was obvious he'd already discovered the entrance to the cave and claimed it for himself. Sakura rappelled toward him.

"Took your time," Sasuke muttered. His belt was unclipped, and he was crouched in the entrance of the tunnel.

"I was admiring the view?"

"Yeah, well you better start admiring the mission." Sasuke jerked his finger toward the shadows that probed the cave. "A hundred meters to Mizuki's complex. Let's go."

"So eager to save Konoha." Sakura sarcastically remarked.

"Yeah, and if we reach the core before Naruto, the better." Sasuke replied.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Short straw." Ino Yamanaka moaned as she crawled deeper beneath the earth's crust, the dirt tunnel showing no sign of ending. "Sasuke and Sakura get to rappel, Hinata and Kiba get sea approach, and what do we get? The way to crawl on our stomachs all the way to the complex." She paused to brush the blonde stand of hair away from her eyes. "Why is it us that always gets short straw?"

Uzumaki Naruto, close behind Ino, said nothing, but the expression beneath the mop of blonde hair suggested that he had a good idea. He thrust Sasuke's smug face from his mind. _Focus on the mission, _he demanded from himself. _Only the mission matters. _

"I just hope some of Mizuki's demon brothers welcome us to the core." Ino growled. "I've got a lot of anger I need to work out." Naruto sniffed.

"No way, Ino. We need to get to the core as quickly as possible. We don 't want to get caught here." He commented.

"That's you. I say that a mission without the opportunity to kick ass. Hey, Naruto…." Ino had stopped, knocking her fist on the metallic surface in front of her. The sound rang out deeply. "We're finally in."

"Awesome." Naruto grinned devilishly. Maybe he would get to the core faster than Sasuke and Sakura after all. They'd reached the complex, at the very least, as the sound testified. Still, there were many obstacles they would have to face.

The two of them crawled across the steel plates. The light was brighter as they neared the main body of the complex, allowing Naruto a more elegant view of his partner's rear as she crawled forward. Naruto was glad that Kiba was not in his position at this particular moment.

Ino paused again, this time because there was a wire grille blocking their path. She rolled back on herself and whispered to Naruto. "Where's this supposed to go again?" She inquired.

"An empty stock room." He reminded. "That's what I remember."

"Then your forgot something else," She added. "Make it an occupied stock room." She pointed with her index finger. Naruto gazed through the grille. Sure enough, a demon guard, in an silver suit and equipped heavily with several kunai and shuriken, was leaning against the wall. Naruto and Ino hadn't thought about this.

_There's a solution to everything. _Naruto felt sick when he saw an alarm switch attached to his torso gear. _We have to sneak past him, somehow. _

"What's he doing?" Ino hissed.

As if answering her, the guard removed his mouth guard and drew out a cigarette and a sapphire lighter.

"Smoke break." Naruto snickered. "What an idiot. Well, we've only have to wait, and…."

"Screw that plan." Ino scoffed. "I'm out of here." Her fists smashed into the grille, sending it crashing into the floor. The guard stood up in alarm, couching from his first drag of the cigarette. He groped for a kunai. He wasn't swift enough. Ino dropped from the vent, smirked, and lashed out with her left leg, snapping the guard's neck and brining him down.

He clattered to the floor with a groan. He didn't move.

"Someone should have told you," Ino sang. "Smoking is bad for you."

XXXXXXXXXX

They dragged the boat up onto the shingle and over to where the lurching rock would conceal it, then they crouched in the shadow of the same rock to recuperate. Inuzuka Kiba didn't look good, his natural complexion tingled with green.

"Water," He groaned. "Is made for washing with. That's no ocean, it's nature's way of showing how much it hates you. We should have missions to nice, sunny tropical islands with flat seas. There's no greatness with heavy tides and midnight." Kiba growled. Akamaru barked.

"Kiba," Hinata pleaded. "We should keep moving, don't you think?"

"It's not like it's that great of a wish, is it? Look at the ninja movies. An island like Poransu's wouldn't be that bad, would it? An awesome beach, waterfalls, oak trees. There has to be an island owned by a full-time freak in the real world, hasn't there? They should sent us there. And they could throw in a ninja girl as well, that'll increase my motivation."

"Well, I guess I would be one…wouldn't I?" Hinata inquired. Kiba gazed at her apologetically. Hinata continued bravely. "For motivation, if we don't get going now, I'm going to be motivating you by squeezing somewhere that hurts." She emphasized.

"Hinata," Kiba smiled. This was the first time she's ever insulted someone. He liked it. "Do you know how long I've waited for you to say that?" But he stood up and followed her.

They moved silently up the shore that surrounded the complex. Hinata gazed up at the foreboding cliff, wondering how the others were faring. She retrieved her gaze back to the mouth of the cave. It was much closer now. She wondered if they were progressing well, with the demon goons and sneaking.

There were two demon guards, alert, their vermillion eyes piercing the gloom.

"We could sneak past them, Kiba." She whispered, restraining his arm. Kiba felt his dog sense rush with emotion when she held him. They weren't together, but Kiba always considered it.

"I don't do sneaking." He replied. "It always makes me think we're defenseless. Anyway, I think these goons are up all the time, and they could use some sleep."

"Sleep needles?"

"Sleep needles. You taking one on the left or the right?" Simultaneously, they retrieved the thin needles from their belt. The silver gleamed in the starlight. Hinata broke off to the left, and Kiba and Akamaru barraged to the right. They angled their wrists.

With a whisper of air, they fired the needles toward their targets. The hours of training paid off. The needles struck them on the neck, blocking a vein, and injecting a poison into their bloodstream. Within seconds, they both collapsed. None of them would wake up before the sun has risen.

"Goodnight, suckers." Kiba crooned. "Sleep tight."

"Come on, Kiba," Hinata urged. "if they're dead, it's possible that it triggered some kind of alarm. We better get out of here before they send reinforcements." Kiba gazed up at the towering cliff before them.

"Of course." He remarked. "Cause I'm not taking the stairs."

XXXXXXXXXX

"All these corridors look alike." Sakura moaned. "You think Mizuki conquered a hotel and turned it into his complex?"

"Don't you pay attention during training?" Sasuke muttered. "Mizuki knew that there would be intruders, obviously. A nut like him wants people to get lost. He doesn't want anyone near the core at all. That's why he would make everything look the same, thinking they're getting closer. But its his way of making you lose your concentration."

"Congratulations, Sasuke, but this isn't the ninja academy anymore, or even real time training. This is the real thing, and we're lost." She replied bitterly. "Unless Mizuki put up signs, we don't have any idea which way it is to the core." She growled.

Sakura made her point sure enough. She and Sasuke had broken into the complex sure enough, using the cave as their entrance. They'd wandered for at least half an hour, wandering similar looking corridors. They were working under a deadline, a major deadline, this wasn't good. They hadn't encountered any goons so far, but Sakura was hopeful they would, for the sake of directions.

Sasuke frowned, he wasn't easy going in taking criticism. They hadn't progressed as swiftly as they had thought, but at least the other teams should still be behind. "I thought I memorized the way, but it would be better if we could check the belt brain."

He pressed a clip in his belt. A flash of emerald light jabbed out from the buckle and formed into a holographic picture of the complex. Three pairs of red dots flashed at different parts of the map.

"There we are." Sakura pointed out.

"Yeah, and there's the core." Sasuke observed. "The center of Mizuki's operation. And there's Naruto and Ino…." He stopped abruptly.

"Closer to the core than us." Sakura completed. Sasuke wasn't pleased. He tapped the clip a second time, and a blue line appeared on the map, starting from their dots to the core. The path was available for them. They just had to obey it. Sakura started off.

"Sasuke?" She walked down the corridor to the suggested path. "Weren't we supposed to beat them there?"

Sasuke was still watching the map, calculating the suggested path, and Ino and Naruto. He assumed the distance between Sakura and Sasuke to the core. There was no way they could beat Naruto and Ino to the core than them. He couldn't accept Naruto beating him.

But in the other route…. if Sasuke and Sakura took a left instead of a right, they'd have a swifter way there, and beat the way to the core before Naruto. He walked forward.

"Sasuke?" Sakura patiently inquired. "The belt said right."

"Well I say left."

"These routes have been purposefully worked out…."

"None of them are here with us now? Are they?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"None of them are here with us now? Are they?"

Sakura shrugged. 

"None of them are here in Mizuki's complex with is." Sasuke continued. "They have no idea. They can't tell us what to do now." He pressed the clip in his belt once more. The hologram collapsed back into the belt. "We're independent, and we'll save a hell more time if we go this way. We'll beat them to the core, Sakura."

"Sasuke, think about it. They even tested the safest route." Her mind creased in doubt.

"It's called initiative, Sakura. Come on, trust me, I need you on this." Sasuke pleaded. With that, Sakura was persuaded. When Sasuke gazed at her like that, pleadingly, like he could see right into her heart, she would do anything. Anything up to the point if he told her to go right up to Mizuki and allow him to kill her.

With that in mind, taking a left instead of a right wasn't that bid of a deal. Especially when the corridor they turned into embedded an identification, C-Alpha. Apparently, Sasuke _truly _was right.

"C for core?" She cheerfully asked, rejoiced by the expression splayed across Sasuke's face.

"C for closer." He smirked. At this point, he would definitely get the jump on Naruto. Sasuke hesitated by a door. He snatched a deactivator from his belt and snapped it over the locking mechanism. "Almost."

As the deactivator began to tick, Sakura found her doubts returning. _Why did they shade this area on the map? _The door eased open. Sasuke grinned and held out his hand for Sakura. They stepped into the circular darkness. A dozen shuriken cut the air and missed them by inches.

"Welcome." A deep voice echoed. "How nice of you to come by." It wasn't often that anyone were so clever in thinking as to waltz right into a guard room.

XXXXXXXXXX

Dull thuds echoed further down the corridor. Naruto tensed his muscles. "You get the idea that something bad just happened?" He inhaled the air as if a stench of something rotten scented it. He winced. "I don't like it."

Ino sensed nothing amiss, but even though she'd known Naruto so close for only one term, she was aware of his inhuman senses. She trusted his instincts down to his eyes. She squared her shoulders and gazed behind them. The corridor gaped darkly in both directions. "You think that guard recovered?"

"The way you kicked him, I don't think he'll ever recover. Plus, we tied him up pretty well." Naruto's expression was dark, eager. "But something's not right. I'm putting on radar vision."

"Good idea." In unison, they pulled out what seemed to be ebony tinted sunglasses. They put them on, covering their eyes completely. There was an activating click as the ends made contact with their ears. Their fields of vision expanded. Now, when they adverted their focus of their eyes slightly, Naruto and Ino could now visualize any object, whether it was animate or inanimate, behind them, on either side of them, or through walls.

It was difficult to sneak up on a ninja.

"How is it for you, Ino?" Naruto checked.

"Three hundred sixty degrees perfect. I'm seeing the core."

They continued their passage through the endless corridors, shadowing away from nearby cameras. Everything seemed normal, but Naruto still couldn't shake the premonition that they were on the brink of disaster. Possibly, it was the two figures ahead of them, guards, out of the naked eye, but around the corner. Ino held his shoulder, indicating she detected them too.

"Sleep needles," Naruto suggested. Ino shook her head.

"Sorry, Naruto. A girl needs her exercise." She broke into a swift run towards the corner before Naruto could protest. He cursed under his breath. He knew Ino better, and had no doubt that she could deal with a pair of demon guards. He almost felt sorry for them, but physical combat wasn't necessary at their point of the mission.

He head the dull thud of a fist against neck, and the chop of a foot against torso. It was like back in the stock room. Ino took way too many risks. One of these days, Naruto knew it was going to cost her. Maybe not today. Naruto rounded the corner to find her posing over the bodies.

"Naruto." She smirked. "You missed all the fun." Naruto tore off his radar vision.

"This isn't supposed to be fun, Ino." His voice was cold and bitter. Ino winced. "This is supposed to be a mission, you get it? We're supposed to use sleep needles whenever we can. The needles are guaranteed."

"What the hell is all this _we_?" Ino retorted. "You don't own me, Naruto. You can't tell me what to do. One more thing," she clenched her fists. "my fists are guaranteed too."

Behind her, came a groan. "Ino!" Naruto yelled. One of the guards, not quite unconscious, was reaching inside of his suit. Ino crushed down on his neck, a mere fraction of a second too late.

All around them, deafeningly, stridently, came the annoyance of the blare of the alarm.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kiba and Hinata heard it as they arrowed their way into and elevator from the lowest levels of the complex to its core. Kiba's ear twitched. "Interesting choice of jazz music." He commented. Akamaru barked, his tongue lolling out for the first time during the mission.

"It means trouble, Kiba." Hinata supplied unnecessarily. "We've got to be ready for anything."

"Don't worry, Hinata." Kiba laced an arm around her shoulders as her face flushed. "I carry protection with me at all times." He referred to Akamaru. The elevator's rise ended almost imperceptibly. Its doors silently smoothed open. "Looks like this is our floor."

They edged out onto the corridor cautiously, which was probably just as well. They were welcomed by an explosion of kunai thrusts, sparking off the hands of the demon guards. The kunai whipped by so close Hinata felt her hair singe.

"Pleased to meet you too." Kiba murmured. A load of guards charged toward them, throwing wildly. _If they bothered to take proper aim, they'd b taking out more than just scenery. _Kiba pondered, _probably why they never had been promoted beyond the level of hired help. _

Kiba and Hinata didn't make the similar mistake. In unison, they withdrew kunai, aiming flawlessly towards their respective targets, with unerring accuracy. Two goons fell….six eight. Whether the other guards might have fled or not percolated down to them somehow. The sudden flash of light against kunai crashed past them, alerting Hinata of reinforcements from the other end of the hall.

"Kiba!" She cried, throwing a kunai behind her. "Let's get out of here!"

"Let's cool off," Kiba agreed, snatching her hand and swiftly retreating to the safety of the elevator. Hinata leapt after him as the doors slid shut. Kunai blasts ricocheted off the metal, but for the moment, they were safe.

"Where now?" Hinata queried. Kiba jabbed a button and the elevator lifted upward.

"So many choices, though. Seventh floor: Weapons of mass destruction. Ninth floor: interrogation and brainwashing. Sixteenth floor: master plans for world domination. It's a wonderful day out for the whole family at Mizuki and Co." He pressed the emergency button and the elevator obeyed, lurching to a stop between floors.

"Kiba, how does this help us?" Hinata whispered. "You have a plan in mind?" At this, Akamaru looked up in a puzzled expression to his master. Kiba appraised Hinata thoughtfully.

"Well, we can make time pass more pleasurably than that." He winked at her. "What about you hopping up on my back for a start?"

"Kiba!" She cried.

"Hinata, please!" He was taken aback. "How else are we going to bust the hatch unless you climb on my back to reach it?"

"What?"

"If we climb the cables, Mizuki's dudes won't have any idea where we are. It works in the movies all the time."

"Really?" Hinata lifted her eyes into his. "Well, let's hope Mizuki's on the same script."

They worked swiftly. Hinata used her shuriken from her ankle belt to unpick the lock, then she hauled herself out to balance herself on the roof. She nauseously looked up at the gaping elevator shaft above them. She glanced dubiously at the thick cable she was expected to climb.

Not for the first time, she realized her life had been easier back before the mission.

"What are you worried about?" Kiba gently jibed as he climbed up with Akamaru. "It's just like any other mission we've done before." Hinata forced herself to focus.

"The only thing I'm worried about," She retorted playfully. "Is you coming up behind me."

They climbed up easily, wrapping their legs around the cable and pulling themselves up hand by hand. It was sheer chance of luck that neither of them had a fear of heights, as soon as the elevator was lost in the shaft's general gloom. They passed several dim outlines of doors before Hinata hesitated.

"What about getting off here?" Hinata called.

"I can't think of any reason why not." Kiba replied. The doors smoothly slid open and a dozen goons pointed their kunai at them. "Maybe I can." Kiba smiled sheepishly at the guards. "Elevator engineers, we hear you've been having quite a few problems…."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Hey, let's look on the bright side." Kiba stated. "We wanted to get to the core. That's where we are. I think Mizuki deserves a thanks for helping us out."

"Why don't you just shut up for once?" Sasuke snapped. He never shared Kiba's optimism, and there was no reason why anyone else should either. So the first aim of their mission had been to penetrate the core of Mizuki's operation, technically, they have.

But the most important part of the mission was to sabotage Mizuki's equipment before he launched the destructive strikes on Konoha. Achieving _this _goal was bound to be difficult, even for Sasuke. The six members of Konoha had been stripped of their weapons and surrounded by a group of guards, outnumbering them at least five to three.

Sasuke felt bitter frustration gather up in him like a noxious poison. How could they salvage the mission now? If they failed, it would reflect on Sasuke's leadership of the team and his future at Konoha. He found himself glaring at Uzumaki Naruto. At least there was one good thing, but minor. Naruto was in an equivalent position.

Naruto was aware of Sasuke's glare but he decided to ignore it, focusing on absorbing the details of the core, mainly the three screens, each displaying for them the gleaming shell of a bomb, trembling and eager to go its business. Computers around them were arranged around half the circumference of the room, where bespectacled experienced technicians were tapping inward to a point above them, which an ebony metallic ball that flickered with green lights suspended above them.

Its purpose was something Naruto couldn't guess. Maybe Mizuki was into psychotic mood lighting. One thing was certain, his mood would be triumphant with a capital "T." Triumphant to the point of arrogance and dominance. But dominant people also made mistakes. Naruto was happy to wait for Mizuki to make his.

"Concentrate." Naruto muttered to the group. "And wait for his mistakes." They nodded in agreement for the sake of Sasuke.

"Well if it isn't for the big demon fox." The big entrance

Mizuki swaggered into the core, flanked by his boldest, grimmest guards. "My apologies to keep you waiting, but for the great moments of someone's life, they have to look good."

The man who smirked triumphantly at them was in shape, with long silver hair, partially covering his eyes. He was nineteen, a forehead protector cap wrapped around the top of his head. He was wearing a dark grey tank under it, the sleeves cut off raggedly. He was sweating, probably from a recent workout. Kiba snorted.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

Kiba snorted.

"You know nothing about looking good." Kiba scoffed. "Is this guy passé or what?"

Mizuki regarded Konoha's ninja team condescendingly, sighed in exaggerated disappointment, and finally shook his head. His corpulent jowls quivered.

"Children." He gazed at their faces individually, as if appraising them. "They send children to distract me. Foolishness merits their destruction. You guys are like…what? Seventeen? Eighteen?"

"Actually," Kiba cut in, repressing the impulse to attempt to lunge at him. "I _am_ eighteen, and I exercise every day. You're only one year older than me, and I'm still in more shape than you."

"Hilarious….for a _kid _in his last moments of seeing light." Mizuki replied humorlessly. "Maybe you're wondering why you're not dead yet?"

"Natural generosity?!" Naruto piped in. He gazed worriedly at Ino. There was something caged in her eyes, wild and desperate. Things would have to progress faster, or Ino was likely to get herself murdered. Hopefully Mizuki would hurry things along.

Their captor chuckled.

"Not quite, idiot. Nice try though." Mizuki smirked at them, tucking his hands in his pockets.

"I know," Sasuke sneered. "As a paid-up member of Maniacs Anonymous you want a chance to boast about your master plan, and brag about how it's going to be when you're ruler of Konoha, master of all survey and all that crap, and you need an audience to admire you. Too bad it has to be a captive audience."

"How very perceptive," Mizuki observed. "Maybe I'll kill you last."

"You're just a cliché, Mizuki," Sasuke continued. _Screw around with their vanity, _he remembered from the academy. _Stab their sense of self-importance. Get them pissed off. _"You're just an entry in a textbook, Konoha's dumbass."

But Mizuki didn't seem swayed by Sasuke's speech. He lifted his hand out of his pocket, which was grasping a cigarette packet. He withdrew a lighter and inhaled the smoke, flooding the eyes of them.

"What I am..." He darkly glared at them through the smoke. "Is the future. When my bombs erased every single vestige of your degraded and decadent culture from the face of Konoha I'm building my own society from its pathetic ashes. A place owned by me, doesn't that seem wonderful?" He mocked Sasuke by blowing more smoke in their direction.

"A bit drug addicted them." said Kiba.

"And _that's _why you guys are still alive and in my presence, to witness it happening. To make you suffer from watching everyone you know die in front of your eyes. Technicians!" Mizuki squared his shoulders. "Let the bombs loose!"

"Sasuke!" Sakura desperately cried.

The technicians' fingers sped across their consoles. All at once, the three screens before them, displayed the missiles launched, rising from their concealed silos and cutting the air like knives. In minutes they would reach their respective targets, and Konoha would enter a new dark age. Unless Konoha's team could stop them.

"Hinata," Naruto whispered. "What do you think?"

"I've seen enough." Hinata whispered. "I can bring them down."

"Awesome, because I've had it with this guy."

"Wait for it, Naruto." Cautioned Sasuke.

"Hold them!" Mizuki demanded. The guards gripped Konoha Team's arms more tightly. The guard even bore a scar on Sakura's wrist. "Wait for what? A miracle?" Mizuki inquired lazily.

"No, stupid." Naruto growled. "The mistake you've just made." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. 

"Let's give these jokers the shock of their lives." A crackle of electricity charged the air. The demon guards holding them recoiled and yelped as the electric current surged from the material of the teenagers' suits and jolted through them. Some fell at once, but others needed encouraging from fists.

"In case you're wondering," Kiba supplied, as he jabbed his claws at one man, and threw another over his shoulder, proving himself unassailable. "They're called shock suits. They're not a available in shops but if you send a check to Konoha, you'll never know your luck." He devilishly grinned.

"Stop them!" Mizuki demanded. "Guard the computers!" The remaining guards waded in, but in lack of wide ranges, the rifles and guns were useless. They dropped like flies. There were a sequence of blows from Ino and Naruto ended the technicians' interest in the evening's proceedings.

This gave Hinata the advantage of seating herself at a console and work with breathtaking speed at the keyboards. This was another talent that she far surpassed the team, her wizardry with all things technological. The others watched Mizuki or finished off the demon guards as she devoted her eyes to the systems.

She began to assimilate and memorize the mechanics of the technicians' works, to girding herself to break the codes and destroy the missiles before they reached their final destinations. She tapped a final combination.

"Success!" Hinata cried. The bright casting of the first missile blistered and burst, almost a second sun in the sky. The screen collapsed into a blue fizz with it. There were two bombs left. Hinata fiercely glanced at the counter. Apparently, she ate two minutes of time.

Mizuki's expression was impassive as his dreams died around him. He glared at Hinata, at the screen, and then back at her. His steel grey eyes narrowed.

"Hey!" He hollered to a conscious but dazed guard who still seemed to have hold of his rifle. "Shoot her!" At least one of his bombs should be able to get through at that point. It wouldn't be fair, otherwise in his opinion.

The guard took an uneasy aim, and fired. A violent scissor kick from Sakura pummeled into his stomach. Mizuki exhaled the smoke from his cigarette, his eyes narrowed. he threw it down. Sasuke and Naruto charged at him from behind, his rasengan bright, his chidori flashing.

Mizuki fell, vermillion blood screaming agony raked across his back.

"What's happening?" Hinata cried, keeping her temptation from averting her gaze from the screens.

"We'll deal with it," Naruto assured. He watched her, for a moment lost in past memories with her. He shook out of his trance. What was that all about? "Just get rid of those bombs."

"Yes, _sir_!" She punched another code. A second dazzling display of lights across the sky. The second screen plunged into darkness. Hinata clenched her fist in triumph. There was only one missile left now. Sixty seconds left. Hinata saw it arc, descent, and accelerate.

Below the missile, not _so _far below, there was Konoha, people oblivious to their imminent fate. Hinata grit her teeth, and redoubled her efforts and speed. The few remaining guards dropped their weapons and held their hands up. With Mizuki gone, there was no point fighting on. Who would pay them?

Sakura and Kiba herded them together as Sasuke stood over Mizuki's body. He felt like shouting for joy. The mission was on the brink of success after all. How they'd applaud him back at Konoha. Hinata was about to destroy the final missile, and Mizuki was….

Alive.

Just.

And grinning, blood trickling from both corners of his mouth. He didn't seem to have much to grin about, considering the gaping wound in his back, but maybe the control pad in his hand had something to do with it. In the pad, he was punching numbers. Sasuke kicked it from his grasp, and sent it skittering across the floor in a flurry of lights.

"Too late." Mizuki smirked at him. Above him, the black metallic ball began to descent. "Even if you win, you lose." The green lights, one by one, were turning red. "That's another bomb, to big to evade, kid. So we do to hell together, right?"

"Crap." Sasuke wasn't aware that Mizuki's closed gray eyes and lolling head meant he was dead or not. He had one more troublesome priority. "Everyone get over here! Everyone but Hinata!"

"What is it?"

The ball paused some five feet off the floor. A number display was counting down from sixty. Inexorably, unstoppable.

"That thing's a bomb. It's going to blow. Hinata can't help us."

"I can!" Hinata cried out. "I'm almost there, I'm nearly…." She could see Konoha before her, its buildings basking in the peaceful sunset. She could see its victims.

"Do something, Sasuke!" Sakura urged.

"Alright, relax. The class we had in bomb defusal…." He snatched a laser rifle from a dead guard and shot at the lower part of the metal casing. Hinata jumped, for a second, distracted. There was less than sixty seconds now, and this was long enough. For the first and fatal time, her fingers faltered.

The faces of Konoha she didn't know were gazing up from pavements and parks, the bomb above them like the apocalypse. She screamed uselessly.

"Too slow, I'm almost there!" The screen showed impact. Mushroom clouds branched into Hinata's eyes.

"This can't be happening!" Sakura wailed. "There's no way…." Tears fogged her eyes. She grasped Kiba's shoulder, and he held her reassuringly.

The guts of the metal bomb were exposed, its array of cables and wires. The number display was at thirty-four, thirty-three….

"I know this type of bomb," Sasuke claimed. "We studied it for class. It's really basic, simple. These two wires…." The others saw them, deadly, fragile. "Red, blue. Red detonates the bomb at once. Blue defuses it. So the only thing I need to do now," Sasuke's fingers fluttered.

"Hell no!" Naruto seized Sasuke's arm in a viselike grip.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?"

….Twenty, nineteen….

"You're wrong, Sasuke, it's the other way around." But Sasuke jerked his arm away fiercely, and shoved Naruto. "What do you think _you're _doing? I'm always right"

"Hinata!" Sakura pleaded. "Get over here!" But Hinata was helpless, her deep eyes staring blankly in front of her.

"Trust me, Sasuke, this one time,"

"No!"

….nine, eight….

"Will one of you do something?" Ino shouted. "Naruto!"

….four, three….

"No! Naruto's not the leader, I…."

…one…

"Who would believe it?" Kiba moaned.

….zero….

The world turned white.

It stayed white, empty and blank as the mind of an amnesiac.

"So this is death," Kiba observed. He felt his shoulder blades, and passed a hand above his head. "No wings, or halo either. Guess we didn't make the grade as angels." Sakura's tears were hard to decipher. She closed her eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sakura closed her eyes.

"Angels they can keep." Sasuke scowled. "It's passing the pathetic lines of Konoha that counts. And thanks to you, Naruto, we've got problems." He advanced toward Naruto across the void. There as an anger and frustration in him that was making little attempt to control. Naruto stood with his arms crossed and his stare fixed, un intimidated, unimpressed.

"I mean, where do you get off challenging my authority in the field like that? _I'm _the damn team leader. I. And that's supposed to mean something."

"It does." Naruto glowered at the forefinger Sasuke was jabbing in his face. "It means I haven't broken your finger you've got. But if you don't put it away, it's a promise that you'll never look the same in gloves again."

"Are you threatening me? Is that a threat, Naruto?"

"Sasuke, this isn't getting us anywhere." Sakura stroked her hands over his shoulders and down his arms, entwining her fingers with his. "You can't just blame Naruto. We all messed up."

"That's right," Ino added. "There are six of us in Konoha's ninja team. It's not just the two of you." She smirked and cupped her hands at Naruto's ear. "Do you hear that, mister Macho Man?"

"Okay, okay. We're all to blame."

_Some, _Sasuke thought deeply, _more than others. _He was glad that Naruto didn't offer to shake hands.

"Awesome." Kiba approved. "Hey, look, now that we're all friends again, united in a sense of uncommon failure, here comes Saint Tsunade. Hey, Tsunade, did you send the Pearly Gates away for refurbishment? And what happened to the beard and the long white robe?"

"Kiba, if you devoted half as much energy to your ninja skills as you do to your useless chatter, your team would graduate within a week as Konoha's official Ninja Team, or we could say goodbye to you forever. For all of us, sadly, that doesn't appear likely, does it?"

The woman who materialized in what had been innocent white space did not look like an angel, or any of the gods. Tsunade regarded the team with sharp, brown eyes, her head swiveling on her pale neck.

"Tsunade, I know it looks kind of bad…." Sasuke was thinking of damage limitation.

"We reached the core though, didn't we? And we stopped two of the bombs." Sakura added. At least Sasuke could rely on her to loyally back him up.

"You failed, you imbeciles." Tsunade snapped. "You did what no team at Konoha can afford to do. You failed your mission. Disastrously. Completely. Abjectly. Utterly. Totally. Absolutely. Unforgivably. Pathetically."

"So hokage," Kiba interrupted. "If you were giving marks out of twenty…"

Tsunade pressed a stud on her belt. "I'm ending the program. Stand by for transfer."

The white void trembled uneasily. It flickered with sudden night. The glass shields of the cyber-cradles hissed and rose, releasing the teenagers from the digital drama of the Mizuki program into the rather less exotic environment of the school's virtual reality chamber. They sat up, blinking, rubbing their eyes. The transfer from one realm of experience to the other always took a little bit of adjustment.

But they were used to Tsunade standing there, waiting for them.

"Kakashi's place." She glowered. "In thirty minutes." The silence that followed was heavy with _or else. _Tsunade turned smartly and stomped her way from the chamber.

"You can never see Tsunade playing Mrs. Claus, can you?" Kiba inquired.

"I don't know." Sakura hauled herself out of the cradle, shook her limbs and stretched. "Tsunade, she's always so bad-tempered I never know whether she really means it or not."

"He means it now." Naruto said. "There's never any joke about Mizuki."

"Then we're really in trouble?" Ino paused in the arching of her back. "They can't fail us for this, can they? We get another chance, right? Sasuke?"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto. It was a petty triumph that Ino had directed her question to him rather than to his rival, but maybe the only one of the day. He wasn't too proud to make the most out of it.

"Come on, Ino, you know the rules. They told us at the start of this program. Each team gets three attempts at the Mizuki program. Three strikes and you're out. Non-negotiable. We're two down now."

"That's…." Ino seemed to be struggling to comprehend the situation in a mixture of defiance and despair. "But that's just…. we can't fail. I can't fail. You don't understand I've got to graduate.

"Well," Sasuke said pointedly. "Maybe some people ought to remember that the next time they feel like questioning a team leader's decisions in the field. I'm going for a shower."

As always, Sakura followed after Sasuke, but this time, Ino did too, still pressing for further information. Naruto waited until they'd left then thoughtfully slouched off himself.

Kiba watched Hinata. She hadn't actually climbed out of her cyber-cradle yet. She was sitting up in it hunched forward, almost like she wanted to be sick. Maybe she did. It occurred to Kiba that she hadn't said a word since their virtual deaths in the Mizuki program.

"Are you okay?" Kiba asked cautiously. Inmate inquiries into somebody's health or otherwise were not one of Kiba's strong points.

"No." She softly replied.

"You want me to fetch a bucket or something?"

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"Actually, yes, but I'm thinking of getting some new material."

"Why don't you think about leaving me alone? I'm not in the mood, Kiba."

"It wasn't real, you know, Hinata. Mizuki, the bombs, what we did or didn't do. Don't let it get you down. It's just a training program. Nothing about it was real."

"But it would be." There was a pain in Hinata's eyes, and shock, and confusion. "One day it could be, couldn't it? We're training now because if we ever pass the course one day we'll be doing this for real. Mizukis exist, don't they? Madmen and their crazy schemes. One day real lives might well depend on us. And what happens then?"

"Then? Then we'll get it right." Kiba said. "I hope."

XXXXXXXXXX

Sakura walked the streets of town, a hood over her head, shielding herself from the rain. She wasn't going home, just walking off her pain. Sasuke had done it again, on the brink of insanity, she was sure he would have lost control of himself.

She had promised him a place to eat afterwards, but seeing the uneasy gaze in his eyes, or maybe the lack of rest in them repelled her. For the first time, she said no.

Disappointing to him, perhaps, but better than the possibility of Sasuke losing it again. They had been going out for a couple of weeks now, and Sakura was exhausted from all his anger shone towards Naruto. They never had any problems until the Konoha Ninja team was rallied.

The team's purpose was to defend Konoha at any given time, and there were other teams as well, but Sakura had ended up with Sasuke willingly, of course.

She had been walking in- apparently through shops, the heart of town, and wove her way through bars and gambling tents. Now, on the outskirts of town, she relaxed, watching the moon with emerald eyes. She was on a cliff top, her favorite place to be to let go of her troubles for once.

She lay down on the grass, her lips curing upward in a slight smile, she stared at the stars and scrutinized the numerous constellations. The stars were everywhere, and each one bright from her angle above town. She turned her head and watched the ground below her, the dizzying height of where she was.

It was there, gazing when a shadow was cast beside her. Without thinking or looking, she smiled.

"Hi, Sasuke."

"It's not Sasuke."

She gazed up, and Gaara was above her, gazing at the moon.

"Ah, hi, Gaara. I thought you were Sasuke." 

"What are you doing?" He inquired. Sakura was silent, thinking why he didn't sound so solemn on this hour.

"I'm watching the stars." Her eyes shifted back to the wide domain of empty sky. "There's no clouds, and it's nicest to stare at them this way." She stood up and stood beside him, gazing at him bashfully.

He still decided not to look at her, she was a nuisance anyway.

"Come on, take a load off. Lay down." She offered. He looked at her silently. "Don't give me that look, Gaara. It's very relaxing.

"No thanks, I'm fine." He replied coldly. His words struck her like a hit on her shoulder. She scowled. She recovered easily.

"Hey, what happened to your gourd?" She inquired.

"I learned to conjure sand without it." He replied with ease. Sakura fell deeply in the sound of his words, the way he said them, deep and smooth. She shook herself out of the trance. What was that about?

"That's amazing, Gaara!" Her sudden outburst of joy surprised him. He finally looked at her expressionlessly. Her cheeks flushed.

"Come, on, Gaara. Want to walk with me?"

In the midst of her words, it was like Gaara's mind suddenly unclouded. She had such deep green eyes, her long cascade of hair…. she was beautiful. He stepped close to her, and she smiled. She had such a beautiful smile, the glory of seeing it was contagious, it was just.. it wasn't like him to think like this.

"Okay."

Sakura's eyes widened slightly. _Okay_. Following came a smile, worth a thousand miles to walk to. He had never smiled before in his life. She smiled back and as they walked into the forest, she spared glimpsing at him, at his handsome smile.

"So who's in your Konoha ninja team?" She inquired.

"Me, Kankurou, Neji, Temari, Shikamaru, and Lee. We passed today's virtual program." He said. Sakura bit her lip.

"Our team didn't pass. Sasuke was too stressed, and Naruto contradicted with his decision. It didn't go well." _He was being an ass. _Sakura thought in her mind.

"You have one more shot at becoming the Konoha ninja team. That'll be in a few weeks." Gaara reminded. Sakura held her head down.

"I know, and with Naruto and Sasuke always arguing, we're not going to do well." She clenched her teeth.

"I'm sure you'll do fine, you just need practice. And some way to get Sasuke and Naruto to agree somehow."

Sakura nodded her head. She never thought Gaara could talk this much.

"Thanks for your advice, Gaara." She smiled at him weakly.

He smiled back.

"Sakura…." Gaara hesitated. He stopped himself. "Never mind." Sakura just giggled. He knew it was a pretty idiotic statement for her to hear anyway. _Sakura…. are you still with Sasuke? I'm sorry for all my sins. I'm sorry that.. I never told you I loved you one time. _


End file.
